Маргерит Дюрас - The Impudent Ones

Developing a reputation for both her efficiency and her literary inclinations, she was able to recommend friends and acquaintances for the paid task of reviewing manuscripts. Her “recruits” included Pierre Lafue; André Thérive; Ramon Fernandez, a brilliant critic and enthusiastic collaborationist; Jacques-Napoléon Faure-Biguet, a writer friend of the Antelmes; and Dionys Mascolo, a colleague of Albert Camus at Gallimard. (Mascolo became her lover and longtime partner, and the father of her son, after she divorced Robert Antelme in 1947.)

After several rejections and significant rewriting, La famille Taneran was finally accepted by Librairie Plon—the publisher of Paul Bourget, Julien Green, and Robert Brasillach—most likely after the intercession of Faure-Biguet, whose own works were published by Plon. {12} 12 We will probably never know how much rewriting Marguerite Duras did, as no manuscript or notes have survived; but Dionys Mascolo remembered that when he met her, she was still busy making improvements. The book appeared in Paris bookstores in August 1943. {13} 13 The same year, Simone de Beauvoir’s first novel L’invitée (The Guest) was published, as well as Sartre’s L’être et le néant (Being and Nothingness) and Raymond Queneau’s Pierrot mon ami (Pierrot) . The year before, Albert Camus’s L’étranger had been published by Gallimard. The title on the cover had been changed to the more enticing Les impudents , and the author had adopted the pen name under which she would ultimately become world-famous.

Marguerite Duras(1914–1996) is the internationally known author of the novel The Lover , as well as The War, The North China Lover, Moderato cantabile , and the screenplays of Hiroshima mon amour and India Song , in addition to many other works.

Kelsey L. Hasketthas recently retired as professor of French and chair of the Department of World Languages and Cultures at Trinity Western University in Langley, British Columbia.

Jean Vallieris the author of C’etait Marguerite Duras , a two-volume biography published in 2006 and 2010 in Paris by Fayard, reissued in a single volume in 2014 by Le Livre de Poche. He lives in New York and Paris.

The Lover

The North China Lover

The Ravishing of Lol Stein

The Sailor from Gibraltar

The Vice-Consul

The War: A Memoir

L’Amante Anglaise

Blue Eyes, Black Hair

Emily L .

Four Novels

Green Eyes

Hiroshima, Mon Amour

India Song

The Little Horses of Tarquinia

The Malady of Death

Outside: Selected Writings

Practicalities

The Sea Wall

Yann Andrea Steiner

Summer Rain

Destroy, She Said

No More

The Man Sitting in the Corridor

Whole Days in the Trees

The Quiet Life

The Atlantic Man

The Slut of the Normandy Coast

Eden Cinema

Thank you for reading this book published by The New Press. The New Press is a nonprofit, public interest publisher. New Press books and authors play a crucial role in sparking conversations about the key political and social issues of our day.

We hope you enjoyed this book and that you will stay in touch with The New Press. Here are a few ways to stay up to date with our books, events, and the issues we cover:

• Sign up at www.thenewpress.com/subscribeto receive updates on New Press authors and issues and to be notified about local events

• Like us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/newpressbooks

• Follow us on Twitter: www.twitter.com/thenewpress

• Follow us on Instagram: www.instagram.com/thenewpress

Please consider buying New Press books for yourself; for friends and family; or to donate to schools, libraries, community centers, prison libraries, and other organizations involved with the issues our authors write about.

The New Press is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. You can also support our work with a tax-deductible gift by visiting www.thenewpress.com/donate.

© Editions GALLIMARD, Paris, 1992

English translation © 2021 The New Press

“The Story Behind The Impudent Ones ” © 2021 Jean Vallier

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, in any form, without written permission from the publisher.

Requests for permission to reproduce selections from this book should be made through our website: https://thenewpress.com/contact.

Originally published in France as Les impudents by Editions Gallimard, 1992

Published in the United States by The New Press, New York, 2021

Distributed by Two Rivers Distribution

ISBN 978-1-62097-651-7 (hc)

ISBN 978-1-62097-660-9 (ebook)

CIP data is available

This work received support from the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Cultural Services of the French Embassy in the United States through their publishing assistance program.

The New Press publishes books that promote and enrich public discussion and understanding of the issues vital to our democracy and to a more equitable world. These books are made possible by the enthusiasm of our readers; the support of a committed group of donors, large and small; the collaboration of our many partners in the independent media and the not-for-profit sector; booksellers, who often hand-sell New Press books; librarians; and above all by our authors.

www.thenewpress.com

Book design and composition by Bookbright Media

This book was set in Bembo

Printed in the United States of America

2 4 6 8 10 9 7 5 3 1

Lot, Dordogne, and Lot-et-Garonne are departments in southwest France, that is, administrative districts similar to counties.—Trans.

Gallimard archives.

The legend that Marguerite Duras created herself—that she grew up extremely poor and suffered at the hands of a dominating and indifferent mother and an abusive older brother—rests mostly on two of her books, The Sea Wall and Wartime Writings . Inspired by real-life family events, these are nevertheless mostly fictional accounts. Duras’s Wartime Writings , which include ostensible reminiscences about her youth, are not actual diaries and need to be analyzed carefully in order to separate fact from fiction.

Gallimard archives.

In a copy of her book that she gave to her companion Dionys Mascolo in 1943, Marguerite Duras wrote: “This book fell from me: the dread and the desire born from the hard part of a childhood no doubt not easy.”

Jean and Jacques Donnadieu, born respectively in 1899 and 1904, were the two sons Marguerite Duras’s father had from his first marriage. Although she knew Jean Donnadieu well at the time she wrote Les impudents , she would never meet his brother again after she returned to Indochina during World War I as a three-year-old child.